November 2011

I recently toured the Pantheon, the Parisian tribute to great French leaders (yes, I realize that “great French leaders” is a bit of an oxymoron, but stay with me here I’m making a point). It was, despite my distinctively American bias, extremely impressive. Entombed there are Frenchmen who made significant contributions to not just their country, but all humanity – Voltaire, Rousseau, the Curies and Victor Hugo, to name a few.

The tour triggered a childhood memory of my reading about an American Hall of Fame in our old World Book encyclopedia, so, when I returned, I looked it up, using 21st century Google technology this time. It turns out that the American equivalent to the Pantheon, if you even want to call it an “equivalent,” hasn’t been updated since I read about it as a child. Indeed, it now tragically dishonors the 102 great Americans memorialized there. And it’s time to do something about it.

I really don’t get this obsession with bringing the disaster that is the Washington DC metro system into Loudoun County (well, unfortunately I do get it, but let’s stick with the rhetorical flourish for now). Let’s start with this damning passage from today’s damning Washington Post story:

“”[metro Board member Tom] Downs said he’s concerned the system is seeing a steady decline in rail ridership, noting that this year’s rail ridership from July to October is expected to drop 2 percent while bus ridership is expected to rise 6 percent.

“It is not a sustainable trend,” he said. “What’s driving it? I have no clue.””

HE HAS NO CLUE!!!!!!!!

Ahhh, maybe it’s the constant breakdowns of escalators, late trains, the horrible safety record, rising fares, etc., etc., etc.??? So if DC and inner suburb usage is down, just how is extending it into the exurbs going to help this situation??? It doesn’t at all, except for the ability to try to rope in more jurisdictions to pay for the shortfalls, as explained below.

The title of that article is “Metro fare increase a possibility in 2012″. Why is that needed? Because they face a deficit of $124 million! Where would Metro first like to find that money??? Why its member jurisdictions of course, before the actual riders:

“If area jurisdictions that help fund Metro do not make up the difference, Metro would have to look elsewhere for the money.”

So this system that faces continual problems and deficits that it expects its member jurisdictions to help cover wants to add Loudoun to its member jurisdictions? We the Loudoun taxpayers get to be put on this hook for 2.5 miles of rail and a couple stops???

I am more convinced than ever that this is a bad bad deal for Loudoun County (but a great deal for certain well connected developers and their consultants and political benefactors). It must be stopped.

I’d imagine you’re going to start to see more political ads on your mobile devices this cycle……I talked a little with Politico about it in an article out today:

Geo-targeted mobile advertising, which made its debut among political campaigns during the 2010 midterms but is just now becoming more widespread, offers presidential campaigns an attention-getting new way to stalk voters wherever they may be found — the state fair, the ballgame or the caucus site. On the presidential level, this means targeting ads at primary- and caucus-goers in the days leading up to the election — or even as they’re heading to the polls on Election Day.

“I would be surprised if we didn’t get to the point this cycle where around caucuses, you could run ads to areas right around caucus locations,” said GOP new media strategist Vincent Harris. “This is absolutely here and now, and I think that it’s something that’s going to continue to get more and more [frequent].”

And while it’s still taking hold on the presidential level, mobile advertising is already being explored by several 2012 GOP hopefuls and a handful of state-level campaigns. Bachmann used mobile ads in her 2010 congressional election and this year around the Ames Straw Poll in August, and Mitt Romney’s campaign is also starting to use the medium. The Obama campaign launched its mobile-optimized new site earlier this month, another sign that mobile will be important at the presidential level.

As expected, Mark Sell announced that he is running for reelection as LCRC Chairman. The Title Seekers, who have been desperate to get back into power, are apoplectic. No word yet on if they will try to challenge him, but come on, what do they have to run against??? A near complete sweep of Loudoun County elected offices???

As if this could be anyone else! One disaster after another. The lame career as a Leesburg patrol cop, where he never got a promotion and resigned under a cloud, the questionable residency (whatever happened to that investigation anyway?), the outright lies about Mike Chapman’s experience (and not knowing what a federal Assistant Special Agent in Charge is), losing the LCRC nomination by more than 2-1 (and not having the decency to shake Chapman’s hand), the predictable (I predicted it from the get go) “Independent” run and pledge breaking after losing the nomination, the never ending full page ads, and the crowning moment of this crazy political season – texting a photo of a huge nasty human penis to a woman working on his campaign.

And what did all this and around $200,000 get him in the end? 10% of the anemic voter turnout, an amount to forever be known as “The Speakman Percentage”, the amount of voters who pay no attention to facts and can be swayed by massive ad campaigns.

Note: I thought about having someone do a turkey photo montage for Speakman, as we’ve had in the past for our previous winners, but come on, you really can’t say “turkey” better than simply showing Speakman himself, can you?

Loudoun is famous for Good Old Boy and Girl Network shenanigans, but I think Prince William County has Loudoun beat with their Supervisor “discretionary funds”. These are big pots of money that each Supervisor gets to dole out as they see fit. Political walk around money at taxpayer expense. Disgusting.

I’ve known about this for a couple years but never looked into it in detail since I don’t live there. But Wally Covington has gone too far in wanting to give $100,000 of his district slush fund to an organization outside his district that is headed up by his wife. Is this Prince Georges County, Maryland or Prince William County, Virginia? Hard to tell. This sounds like something I would expect to see from the Washington DC City Council. You know it’s bad when BVBL and Moonhowlings (formerly anti-BVBL) agree on something. An excellent synopsis is provided at this new blog (to me) as well.

PWC residents of all political persuasions should band together and demand an end to these “discretionary funds”. They say discretion is the better part of valor – it’s time for PWC politicians to find the valor in themselves to get rid of this kind of indiscretion.

With all the name calling that goes on in the blogosphere, I thought it would be helpful for commenters to have this handy dandy chart close at hand to ensure they use the correct term to capture the thought.

From IQcomparisonsite.com:

IQ Range

Classification

140 and over

Genius or near genius

120-140

Very superior intelligence

110-120

Superior intelligence

90-110

Normal or average intelligence

80-90

Dullness

70-80

Borderline deficiency

Below 70

Definite feeble-mindedness

Mental deficiency used to be more finely classified using the following technical terms that later began to be abused by the rest of society:

IQ Range

Classification

70-80

Borderline deficiency

50-69

Moron

20-49

Imbecile

below 20

Idiot

Thus, an idiot calling someone a moron could be viewed as a compliment.

I’ll be at the Advance next week and hope to catch up with many of y’all. I stupidly booked late and don’t have a room at the Homestead… If you have an extra room or know anyone who does please let me know! My email is vincent@harrismediallc.com

“”You’ve got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Sen.-elect Dick Black, a Republican from Loudoun County with a track record of pushing conservative social bills while in the House of Delegates. With four new conservative Republicans joining the Senate thanks to this month’s legislative elections, Black anticipates a chance to strengthen abortion restrictions, ease gun regulations and further restrict labor unions.”

“I think we’re seeing a steady shift back to traditional conservative values in Virginia,” he added.”"

After taking a few months vacation while campaigning while an imposter focusing on jobs and transportation filled in, the Dick Black that educated Loudouners remember is indeed back. I wonder what bills he’s working on to create jobs and fix roads? Or is he set to introduce Marshall’s personhood bill in the Senate? Or file a local preemption bill to Eugene’s dreaded HR 998 (see post below)? Same old, same old. But hey, he’s got four years to do whatever the hell he wants.

Somehow I just forgot all about this! Last year I did it a few days before Thanksgiving and announced the winner Thanksgiving Day. I guess we’ll start this today and let it run through the weekend. Make your votes and I’ll tally them up and announce the winner on Monday morning.

Last year’s winner was Andrea McGimsey and I think she deserves serious consideration again this year for helping pull her party down to a depth of electoral despair no one has ever seen. Ron Speakman also deserves mucho consideration. Lots of choices. Fire away.

Liberal Anthropologist on The Failure of Obamacare Jimmy, You should engage as I am dealing with facts. Since most people have a similar opinion, if you have a different one, you should... – May 15, 12:17 AM

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